Archive

Shares of Research In Motion dropped Friday after the maker of the BlackBerry e-mail reader said revenue fell short of analyst targets for the fourth quarter. The company gave a weaker-than-expected forecast, despite claiming that it has regained momentum now that its legal issues are behind it. On...

Microsoft is reviewing a lawsuit filed against it by Lucent Technologies. The suit alleges that Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game console contains technology that infringes on a Lucent patent. Lucent filed the suit in the U.S. District Court in San Diego on March 28. The company is seeking an injuncti...

Vodafone, one of the largest mobile phone carriers in the world, unveiled a sweeping restructuring plan designed to cut costs and help it compete in a rapidly changing marketplace. The UK-based company -- the largest mobile carrier in terms of market value -- plans to split into three units to focus...

Netflix on Tuesday filed a patent infringement suit against Blockbuster alleging the bricks-and-mortar movie rental chain illegally copied its ideas. Netflix is seeking a court order that would force Blockbuster to change its online rental processes and pay patent royalties. The complaint was filed ...

Computer Sciences Corp. may find it a challenge to nail both the right buyer and the right price if it ends up on the block. The company has announced it is exploring various alternatives including an outright sale. On Tuesday, CSC said its board of directors "decided to explore strategic alternati...

Wireless technology is everywhere. Consumers, professionals and businesses are finding they can no longer survive without having wireless access in some form or another -- whether through PDAs, mobile phones, BlackBerries or laptops. One industry that really stands out when it comes to getting real ...

Taking the convergence of cable and telecommunications to a new level, British cable provider NTL will buy Virgin Mobile, a move that will enable it to roll out a four-pack of services under a single brand. The stock-and-cash deal was valued at about US$1.67 billion, making it relatively small in co...

Time Warner said it officially changed the name for its Internet service and portal, saying America Online will now be known by its longtime nickname, AOL. The America Online moniker is being retired after some 15 years, during which time it became synonymous with Internet access for millions of ...

E-mail marketers anxious to see that their opt-in mailings are not mistaken for spam are finally seeing brighter days, new research suggests. While the journey to the customer's inbox is getting easier, however, passive marketers will face tough challenges from smart competitors who are quickly lear...

Based on interviews with 40,000 American residents, the Department of Justice (DoJ) has reported that 3.6 million -- or about 3 out of every 100 -- households were victimized by perpetrators of identity theft between July and December 2004. The numbers differ from earlier research findings and sugge...

Verizon Communications plans to sell off its Caribbean and Latin American telecommunications operations in three separate transactions that will net it some US$3.7 billion in cash, the company announced Monday. It will use the funds to strengthen its balance sheet and and to prepare itself for battl...

In response to advertising industry concerns over Internet security, MySpace.com has removed 200,000 "objectionable" profiles from its social network. The site erased profiles containing risque or hate speech content. Ross Levinsohn, president of MySpace parent company News Corp.'s Internet division...

Alcatel and Lucent announced Sunday they plan to merge in a US$13.4 billion deal that will create one of the largest telecom and Internet gear makers in the world -- and one that may face tough scrutiny from regulators. Exactly a week after acknowledging that they were talking about a possible deal,...

As the recent BlackBerry case focused the world's eyes on the arcane field of patents, I was reminded of the 1999 Amazon.com "one click" case, which caused so many to condemn the U.S. patent system. At that time, critics called the system "broken" and a "disincentive to innovation." Now, the system ...

Google continues to tinker with the concept of monetizing its popular maps feature through advertising. What is new about its latest initiative is that icons for advertisers are embedded in the maps. When clicked, a pop-up ad appears with additional information about the advertiser, including its lo...